Haifa, Chaplin, Falafel and friends

This is a picture I took while we were driving. In the distant left you can see the water, but I'm not sure how well. Everyday I wake up to the incredible views that Haifa boasts of. I remember being so disappointed when I learned Ulpan Akiva in Netanya closed this year. Come on, I only waited ~15 years to go to it! But as usual, things once again turned out for the best. I am closer to most of my friends here in Haifa, the city is great and very easy to learn, and the program has been superb.

I have put a few miscellaneous pictures together for your pleasure. I hope you enjoy them and my explanations...


I had to take this picture for Jeff! I have no idea what Chaplin is doing in the Druze village or what kind of store it is!!

If you look in almost the center of this picture, you will see the new dental office I am going to be working at. NOT! But it wouldn't be bad because it's right next door to the best falafel restaurant in Israel, which is the following picture.

The all time best falafel in Israel is found in the nearby Druze village. Shwarma too.

Sorry Zack-I only got the falafel when I was went there!

Mmmmmmmmmm! What can I say? Freshly made falafel is the best! Crisp on the outside, tender inside and hot. Lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, hummos, cabbage, cucumbers, tehini....

Diet? What diet?! This picture is going to do me in when I am back in the States!

Gloria Silver Mazor and me. Gloria and I have been friends since we were 15. We pick up where we left off whenever she comes in town or I come here. It's a special relationship that has stood up to the years and distance apart. And, she's got me beat! She has 5 grandchildren, kena hora!

This is from the outside courtyard of the Castra Mall that Gloria took me to for lunch. It's a mall that has a lot of art in it as well as a fascinating exhibit of dolls, portraying Jewish history from the Torah onwards up to present day. The lighting did not allow for pictures :(

This is my roommate Lisa. She was born in Germany and now lives in Belgium with her Israeli husband and five children. One of the interesting things about her is the way she speaks. Everything is spoken in such a grand manner! Things are "mahvelous" or "brillant!" When she got upset about the way we were told that we needed to clean our rooms before we leave or we'll be fined, her reaction was "It's absolutely scandalous!" and continued saying that numerous times. I mean really, how mad can you sound when you're walking around calling the action scandalous!?

Now this was no small feat for me to tackle when I first started to go online. Forget about learning how to blog! How the heck do you type in your name and password on the right side of the screen? Doing this was small compared with FaceBook. Aside from signing in with only Hebrew on the page, they keep asking if I want to have all of your posts translated into Hebrew (I should say not! How do they even know that I'm in Ulpan??) Then with my blog, I had to read all the Hebrew words to find out where to click to log in without deleting everything.

Yes, merely being in Israel has made me think and breathe Hebrew. Two of the weirdest things lately are 1) I often start to write English on the right side of the paper and 2) There have been times where I write a Hebrew word transliterated when I'm writing totally in English. Talk about confusion! I think I better go rest now :)

The Daily Show

I feel so proud when I see the flag of Israel waving!

I have a few moments here and thought I'd give you all a little pictorial view of what happens when I leave my apartment in the morning. This is outside my front door :

This is the front of the building I live in:

This is where I walk on the way home from classes (it looks a little different on the way to class but the distance is the same!)

This is Doobie. I don't think he quite knew what to make of me the first time we met. He is the guard I see daily on the way to classes. We are now friends and he frequently teaches me how to say things in Hebrew. It's funny cause he also often speaks very slowly and a bit louder than necessary, as if that will help me understand :)

This is the first building I need to get to after I pass the guard's booth.

I walk up three flights of stairs to get to the second building pictured here - I then walk up the last two flights of stairs! WHEW!

Finally I am on a flat surface to get to the third building where I will climb more stairs!
This is also the area where we hang out during breaks.

This is Ayellet, my teacher. She is amazing. We have so much fun in her class. I am truly going to miss her and the class. Also, I want to find a good man for her here in Israel so if any of you know that person, let me know ASAP!

And finally, here are a few of my friends from the Ulpan. From left is Marie, who is from Germany. She has graduated from med school and wants to convert to Judaism and make Aliyah. That's me in the middle. Maya is from Sweden. speaks great Hebrew and is learning how to read and write better and she thinks she wants to make Aliyah. And now I can't remember where Rosa is from, but know it's in the U.S. She started our fan page for the Ulpan.

All in all, the routine to class is pretty much the same everyday. I often walk with someone or alone. Alone is good because I get a chance to think about being here, my life and what I'm going to do next.. The last subject has yet to be determined!

At this time I'm trying very hard to stay present. The other day on the way to class I thought, "School is so hard; I don't know if I can do this for two more weeks" and then when I got to class and sat down, I immediately thought, "I can't believe in less than two weeks I'm not going to be able to come to class anymore" and that was it. Off and on, during the whole class period my eyes teared up. It was like I breathed in one thought and breathed out the other.

And now here's something funny: Today I looked around the class and it came to me that I was older than everyone! Of course I know and knew this, but I think for the past two weeks I forgot, even though I talk about Jeff and the kids, I still forgot. Pretty crazy and made me smile inside. I wonder if anyone else forgot...yeah, right!

Ok. I'm off to do laundry! Nothing like laundry to get you present again!

Love and miss you all.

Love Israel.

Love, Debbie

Hanging Out with New Friends in Israel

Today is Tish B' Av in Israel. If you are more religious, it's a day fast, as opposed to a 24 hour fast like on Yom Kippur. Many horrible things have happened to the Jews on this day. For us at the Ulpan, it was a free day without class so it wasn't so horrible. Last week I made an appointment to get my hair done today because we didn't have class and it seemed like a good time to do it. I know you're probably wondering what happened to my hair, now that I told you about horrible things happening on this date in history. Well, I'm here to tell you that this first picture is not me after my appointment! It's a picture of the wonderful sherut driver (shared minibus for 10 people) that took me to my appointment after I missed my bus and then later he was the same driver that took my friends and me to the mall!




Now here I am with Prosper and his assistant. She blew out my hair with no less than 4 brushes and it really, no I mean REALLY looked great.

Onwards to the mall, which is called the Grand Canyon. Pretty impressive, eh? If you keep looking at the following pictures of it, you'll see some fun stuff :)

The malls here often have grocery stores (SuperSol) and drugstores (Super Pharm) in them. This mall had an ACE hardware....with dining room tables, chairs and furniture outside its doors.

I couldn't help but think of Evie when I recognized this fabulous aroma wafting over me! Just think how many crepes I would need to make if I made crepes this size!!!

Last night was time to go out (no classes today)! We headed out on the bus to the German Colony. I LOVE the public transport system here. At any given hour the busses and trains are full. From bottom left clockwise, here's Kath who is from England, Bailey who is from Canada, Joseph from Boston and David who now lives in San Francisco but is originally from Denver. I found Kath on the FB page for fans of Haifa University prior to coming out here. We became instant friends sharing similar emotions. David watches out for me. He often reminds me of Ben and Zack and I guess I remind him of his mother except I let him swear in front of me and she won't.

Before I met Kath in person, I thought she was going to be a bit stuffy as she wasn't smiling in her FB picture and I also thought she was a professor! Little did I know, she's actually taking all the classes she was writing about to become a rabbi! And she smiles alot, but not with staged photos! We have a lot of fun together. And I even caught her smiling in a picture last night too!

This past Sunday night Dudik's parents took me to the beach for a walk and dinner. Dudik is Ziv's (see third or fourth entry of blog) best friend. Last year when Dudi came to work at Tamarack, Ziv asked if we could be his host family. He has stayed with us several days and has hung out with our family doing things like biking, eating, the zoo, eating, Royal Oak, eating, the mall, eating, getting Evie's ear pierced and lots more. It was great to finally meet his parents, Miriam and Yanki!

And now, sof sof (finally) I am going to leave you with the most beautiful picture of an Israeli sunset ever, partly because I saw it and partly because I captured it. I almost feel like a travel agent because this picture makes me want to say "Come to Israel and feel her warmth and beauty!" I know you'll all be happy to know I haven't loss m ability to be corny here :)

Another Wonderful Day in Haifa

I did this blog from the bottom up. Since I can't seem to get the pictures to go in the way I want them to, I tried doing it a different way. So, here I am at the top of the blog, but really at the end of the blog for me. Not too sure how much sense this is making!

It's night, ~9:30 pm and I'm sitting outside. Hookas are being smoked in front of me and to my right, and to my left two Russians are talking Russian. Inside the moadon they're teaching a salsa dance lesson. It's a beautiful night with a light breeze and I'm in Israel. It's so different here. The traffic is crazy...Israelis drive crazy yet they won't cross the street unless the light is green for walking. There may not be a car in sight for miles, but they don't move. I seem to always have to wait in the grocery store line as the cashier tells the person in front of me about a sale which the person suddenly decides she must have. Those are just two things. Yes so many things are different here and I feel different too. Oddly enough, I'm comfortable with just being aware that I feel that way.

Here''s a few pictures I hope you enjoy. Layla tov...


Did someone say they wanted some halvah? Um...exactly which flavor did you have in mind?

This isn't the picture I wanted in here but since I can't cut it out, I'll update you on the stair situation. There are 173 stairs that I've climbed everyday...until today when my roomate showed me the elevator ( 7 floors up). I'm still going to take the stairs but it's nice to know it's there.

My friend, Ronnie Spinner and I went to Broadway Bagel restaurant and caught up on our families and life. I last saw Ronnie around the time I went to Israel with him and 40 some kids to Israel in 1971. He got married to Debbie and on their honeymoon to Israel they stayed and made aliyah!

After lunch I went to the grocery store which was in the basement of the mall, long with the pharmacy/drugstore. After walking in the wrong door and having to go back out so the guard at the other door could check my purse, I had to decide which size shopping cart to take. Decisions, decisions...

And here's the thing about toilet paper and paper toweling in Israel: for whatever reason, it's sold only in huge, Costco-sized packages in the grocery stores! You cannot find a 4 or 6 pack anywhere. Hmmm...I wonder if this has any connection to the toilets??

The day ended with a wonderful visit with my friends, Ruti and Itzik Amoyal. They picked me up and took me to a beautiful area to view Haifa. We saw the Bahai Gardens and the gold dome from the temple was missing! Apparently they were cleaning it? I mean, the thing is huge...how did they even take it off? After we went to Zichron Yaacov for dinner. It's a very cool area of restaurants and shops. It was the end to another wonderful day in Eretz Israel.